The Marshall Plan II

We took our recent visitors to some of our favorite sights around town. Of course, anyone who brings a child is bound to go to Valley Gardens, playground extraordinaire. (Even if you don't have children, we'll probably drag you there anyway if you stay long enough). The playground was not only fun for Jacob, Lucy, and Colin, but they also got to try out one of the Jubilee decorations.

Finally we have enough people to fill this one!

Colin and Lucy sittin' in (what used to be) a tree...

The "EIIR" is for Elizabeth II, Regina ("Regina" is Latin for "Queen"). Some other carvings are found around town. I read in the paper that some chainsaw woodcarving artist made a pass through town recently and carved some decorations to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee.

Another day we took them to Spofforth Castle, the ruins of a manor house just ten minutes away from home. Well, usually it is ten minutes away but we hit some really bad traffic and it took us more like forty minutes. We wound up having dinner at The Castle Inn, where we had a tasty dinner and yummy beers.

Colin and Jacob take the short entrance

Jacob in the window with BJ in the distance

Lucy sneaks in the back door

Flower girl

Amy in the distance

Yet another day we went to the town of Ripley for their world famous ice cream. Alas the only pictures I have are of the chickens who came right up to us at the picnic tables in front of the ice cream shop. They were the ultimate in free range chickens. It was much nicer than the usual pigeons who come flocking for crumbs everywhere else. The children were very interested but not enough to try petting them. We parents were grateful for that.

No particular pecking order here

Balancing on one leg was a pretty good trick for a chicken

The other big outing we had with them was to the Ryedale Folk Museum, but that's a story for it's own post, coming soon!